Thursday, October 23, 2014

Catching up with Phillip Addis, Figaro in Edmonton Opera's Barber of Seville

Metallic shelving units line the perimeter of the Jubilee
Auditorium rehearsal hall. They are laden with props. A quick glance around the
room reveals a barber’s chair in one corner. There is a side cart decorated
with razors, combs, and a tall glass jar ready to disinfect any used combs. The
stage manager helps me to clear a spot on the wooden prop vanity to interview
Edmonton Opera’s leading man, Phillip Addis, playing Figaro in the Barber of Seville. Addis relaxes back in his seat with a sense of calm. He is no stranger
to Principal roles having sung the title
role in Pelléas et Mélisande with
the Opéra Comique in Paris and Il Conte Almaviva in Mozart's Le Nozze
di Figaro with Pacific Opera
Victoria earlier this year; however, this is Addis’ Figaro debut.

“It’s been a good rehearsal process because
the first time through a role, you prepare as much as you can. But when you
start staging, often you start to have realizations as to why the show flows
the way it does,” Addis says with a mature sense of insight. “Once you start
listening to what your colleagues are saying in the dialogue, it just changes.
Instead of imagining what they’re singing, you become a listener engaged in a
conversation. There’s something more immediate about the relationships as opposed
to when you’re just reading it from the score, trying to picture how they’re
going to deliver their lines in between your lines,” he states highlighting the
collaborative importance of his fellow cast members.

In preparing for his debut role, Addis reveals that he did
not want to watch any videos prior to coming to the rehearsal process. He
elaborates on his rationale: “I didn’t want to end up being a copycat. I know
there’s a lot to be learned and there’s a lot of great resources out there but
I wanted to make sure I was fresh and a clean slate for the direction both
dramatically and musically. It gave me more freedom
to figure it out myself, who Figaro is for me.” By unraveling the layers of his
character, Addis found that Figaro’s primary motivation is money. The prospect of success and reward is irresistible.

Figaro is the grease that makes the town run. He maximizes
on his influence as a barber and is able to exploit the knowledge of his
diverse networks. As a result, he anticipates outcomes as problems
are approaching. Addis also sees Figaro as being very observant character that
soaks up facts and emotions behind what people are saying. However, at the
core, Addis views Figaro as a sympathetic character. “Figaro just wants people
to be happy and he wants people who love each other to be happy because that
translates into success for him and money as well,” he states.

There is an overall sense of urgency because Figaro is
constantly juggling multiple storylines. In order to convey this to the audience,
Addis must exude an energized physicality on stage. “I don’t want him to come
across is just having had too much coffee, although there is a bit of that. I
am trying to be fairly wide-eyed and physically exuberant… he knows there is no
time to lose. Overnight, this opportunity could pass him… otherwise [Rosina]
will be forced to marry Bartelo. He is keenly aware of the pressures of timing
and that excites him instead freezing him into a panic.”

Figaro’s opening aria is in no way relaxing. Addis laughs as
he reflects on this fact. “The singing is challenging and we’re doing a lot of
active things. He’s not just singing about his life, he’s reenacting it all,” he
says. However, once everything is cleared from the stage, there is one brief moment of quiet before the Count arrives
in his barbershop. From that point onwards, it’s non-stop for Figaro until the closing
curtain.

In order to generate the energy required for the role of
Figaro, Addis shares that he is still searching for that balance. “Occasionally,
we’ll run through a scene and I’m a bit out of breath by the end of it. But
that’s good. It means it’s a proper challenge. Hopefully, it means that what
I’m doing is not boring,” he states before elaborating on the importance of
breathing. “If you’re holding your breath the whole thing is off... I think
that ties in with the idea that if [Figaro] is truly anticipating the problems that
are going to arise then I need to anticipate where I need to take a deep breath
before a burst of activity. The idea of that deep breath, wherever it may lie,
it is supportive musically but it can also work dramatically too. If you want [Figaro]
to be clear-headed, then he can’t be tense and frantic,” explains Addis. He
notes that the goal of the whole ensemble has been working on exuding energy
but being in control of the situation as well.

There is an allure of the Operatic form for Addis: “The thing
about Opera is that so much that goes into the storytelling. It can be really
engaging. But there’s a certain comfort in it. I find it less exposed than
concert and oratorio work. In those other forms, it’s just you and your voice.
You’re doing all the storytelling. And it’s between you and the accompanist and
the conductor telling the story musically as well. There is no visual crutch so
you have to be so precise. It’s just more exposed… In Opera it’s quite
different. First of all you rehearse in the same setting for a few weeks. You
get to pass the responsibility of the storytelling between more people… It’s a
more complicated collective relationship.”

As Addis prepares for future projects, he finds himself
drawn back to the fundamentals of his craft. “I’m more aware not of things I
want to improve and explore technically, which I think will serve me well for
the larger roles that come along, and truly essential to get through the larger
roles in the repertoire. [The idea of being a lead character] that, in itself,
I don’t find scary. But it’s everything that goes behind making a performance
that much more engaging… I’m trying to make sure that I’m always trying to put
the best performance forward,” he states with a sense of humility.

In the days leading up to opening night, Addis is looking
forward to the sitzprobe. The singers will get to rehearse with the Orchestra
for the first time. “I’ll be grinning. I sometimes get excited to the point
where I get teary-eyed. I love it. It’s a gut reaction. There’s nothing
artificial about how profoundly orchestral music moves me” says Addis. He
summates his thoughts on Opera: “The blend of great orchestral music with great
vocal writing. That’s why I’m in this. It’s what I love the most about Opera
and other classical vocal repertoire. It’s got two things I absolutely adore
fused into one.”

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About Me

I'm a choir girl who is passionate about all things choir, music, and performance-related. I detail my musical musings and experiences here on this blog. In addition to being a Speech-Language Pathologist interested in the area of Voice Therapy, I'm an avid chorister in Edmonton singing with Pro Coro Canada and the Edmonton Opera Chorus.